The Alinea Experience at the Astor Center
5 photos
<p>At left: spiced cider meringue filled with apple and foie gras. Center: Pumpkin with smoked salt and crisped rice, held in place by Alineaâs â<a href="http://www.chow.com/stories/10211">antenna</a>.â Right: Black truffle explosion, with parmesan, black truffle slice, and romaine. </p>
<p>At left: A completed Hot Potato, Cold Potato, ready to eat. Center: Thai curry and sweet potato custard, resting on a bed of chilled coconut and basil âsnow.â Right: Achatz signs copies of the Alinea book. </p>
<p>A cook puts together âHot Potato, Cold Potato.â Cold potato soup is held inside a wax bowl. A pin spearing the bowl holds a cube of butter, parmesan, chive and a Yukon Gold sphere suspended over the bowl. When ready to eat, the pin is pulled out, everything mixes together, and you eat it.</p>
<p>An Alinea cook garnishes flat, crispy slices of bacon with caramel and apple ribbons.</p>
<p>Which are later suspended in air, held in place by parallel wires, looking something like a magic carpet made out of bacon. </p>